Strong growth forecast for global generic drugs market to 2013

Generic drugs remain a major growth area in the global health care market. That advance has been partly driven by cost-containment in  several national health care sectors, with governments seeking to  promote the use of copy products over higher-priced originals,  according to a new report from Visiongain, entitled World Generics  Market, 2008-2013.

The global generic pharmaceuticals market was worth over $100.0 billion  in 2007, with market growth noticeably higher than that of the overall  pharmaceutical sector. This is in contrast to recent figures from IMS  Health, which put worldwide audited prescription generic turnover at  $78.0 billion for the 12 months to September 2008, demonstrating a  growth rate of 3.6% of the like, year-earlier period (Marketletter  January 5 & 12).

Over the period 2008 to 2013, Visiongain expects the generic market to  sustain its strong current growth, with exciting new developments to be  driven by the wave of blockbuster drugs approaching patent expiry. The  study also identifies the therapeutic areas that will face the highest  levels of competition from generic substitutes from 2008 to 2013.